Life can get busy sometimes. Maintaining a diet that is nutritionally dense when you’re constantly trying to balance work, family and friends can be challenging, and knowing exactly what nutrients your body needs can be confusing. Women have different nutritional needs to men and, while vitamin and mineral supplements should not replace a balanced diet, they can help fill in nutritional gaps in your diet and aid general wellbeing.

Here are some vitamins and minerals to help manage common nutritional deficiencies in women:

Iron

Iron is a mineral that helps create haemoglobin – a compound that carries oxygen in blood in red blood cells. While iron is metabolised at the same rate in both men and women, women require up to 18mg of iron daily (10mg more than men) due to around 1mg of iron being lost for every day of bleeding during their menstrual cycle.  Iron supports healthy blood and energy production.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is an important nutrient for women’s health. It aids the absorption of calcium and is required for healthy bones and teeth, as it helps maintain bones density and bone strength. Inadequate exposure to sunlight, e.g. working indoors or living in wintery conditions can impair vitamin D absorption. Vitamin D helps maintain muscle strength and a healthy immune system.

B Vitamins

Vitamin B refers to a group of eight different vitamins that play a crucial role in converting food into energy in the body. B vitamins (often referred to as B-Complex vitamins) include thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), pantothenic acid (B5), biotin (B7), folic acid, and cobalamin (B12). These vitamins are water soluble, meaning your body does not generally store them, so it is important to get regular intake of these vitamins from your diet. B-Complex vitamins support a healthy stress response in the body and emotional wellbeing.

Magnesium

Magnesium is important for cellular energy production. It is involved in over 300 enzyme reactions in the body as every biological process requires magnesium and is also essential for the metabolism of calcium and phosphorus.  Magnesium supports energy production and healthy muscle function.

Maintaining a diet that is balance and nutritionally dense can help prevent nutritional deficiencies If you think you may have a nutritional deficiency, please speak to your health professional.